BBB issues warning about mailings from company

Businesses in North Texas and other states should be cautious about responding to mailings from Corporate Records Service, a Michigan company that is asking for $125 in return for help compiling corporate annual minutes documents, warned Better Business Bureau of North Central Texas president Monica Horton said.

Horton explained that the company also has an Austin, Texas, postal box.

The initial complaint, she said was filed last month by the Wisconsin attorney general. Several other states have issued warnings about the firm in recent months.

The BBB said the Wisconsin complaint alleges that the mailings have the "look and feel" of a government document. The attorney general claims that information on the form and the mailing envelopes constitute "untrue, deceptive or misleading" statements made with intent to sell a service.

Last month, the Secretary of State in Oregon described a virtually identical notice mailed to businesses in that state as misleading and unneeded. Similar warnings have been issued in Illinois, Texas, Washington, Maine and Delaware in recent months.

Horton said one Wichita Falls businessman has received the mailing and described it as "misleading" and said that he had received one for each of his three companies.

Horton said her office has received more than a dozen inquiries from North Texas businesses about the mailings. Many described the notices as confusing.